Phil Hawkins, Filmmaker: My manager had kind of always said
we just need that one piece of work Phil. That one thing that we can really shout about.
Film Courage: How has ORIGINS changed your life?
Phil: That's a big question! It has changed in terms of personally the film has
brought that hunger back that maybe was becoming a little bit tired to all the frustrations of making
film and doing it for so long and not quite getting there (wherever there is). Now I feel
revitalized and refreshed and just kind of reborn in a way in terms of wow if we can pull that off
then actually we can make some really cool stuff and I feel like I've finally made something that
is very me (which I know is a weird thing to say when you're kind of ripping off existing
films and things) but hopefully still has some of my personality and my perspective you
know in that film it's not just a shop for shop rip-off of you know things that we love um and
um i think what has changed is um opening the doors so i was lucky to already have a manager
you know a wonderful manager in in l.a so i i always had a certain amount of access
to you know to to people but my uh manager had kind of always said
we just need that one piece of work phil she's that one thing you know that we can really
shout about and maybe it's a commercial maybe it's a short maybe it's one of these features
maybe it's something but you know you you so i've made all this stuff but i hadn't quite
had something that we could bet the houses on you know and i was for years in our relationship
you know uh with my manager um uh it has always been what is that thing and suddenly that
this is that thing you know this is definitely that thing that we send out
and then to send that out and have you know sit down with you know be invited to
amblin you know and sit down there and have conversations with those guys about films and
films i want to make and and just suddenly it's like it's like mecca right it's like going it's
like being back at the heart of everything that you love you know that was very special um and
just now um i feel that um i have a piece of work that you know raises the eyebrow enough for people
to want to pick up that phone to want to read that script and want to kind of so you know so i think
um you know it's it's been a little bit frustrating with kovid and the industry and
we all know what's been happening uh depending on when you're watching this but you know we all uh
everything is a little bit up in the air at the moment so it's very hard to get new things off
the ground um but um but hopefully it's a film that lasts and and i can it will go on
um to uh allow me to talk to interesting people i mean the thing is is like without that film i
never would have sat down on ambly and never would have sat down with some producers who you know
like heroes of mine that made films i love you know and actually have genuine conversations about
um the kind of things that we want to make you know those would have never happened so
so it's already kind of inverted cards paying off in that way as an introduction you know
am i directing the next jurassic world five exclusive no i'm not yet
but um at least hopefully it's some proof that i could if i had the opportunity
um and and who knows what's around the corner who knows who's watching it right now you know people
uh seem to keep discovering it all the time and there's a few people i can't mention who have
seen it that i'm like wow that's like how the hell have you seen this film it's amazing they you know
take that's the beauty of the internet and youtube and putting yourself out there that
these things take a life of their own and people share it and you know and you never know what desk
that it's gonna arrive on and that's kind of it that's really exciting now is to
kind of think what is what's possible next you know um on that journey to being the
the hollywood director inverted commerce which i you know wanted to do since i was eight you know
well in that vein how confident are you that you'll be hired to direct a hollywood movie
in the next few years let's say covid somehow however it's going to work itself out if it
does hopefully uh how do you envision yourself working as a hollywood director
i mean yes i mean i've always kind of pictured myself doing it from from the beginning but
now i feel that i have a piece of work that maybe i don't know alleviates fears or reservations or
anything like that it's like okay well if you can do that film then maybe you can do this film
um and um uh you know and that's that's very exciting and yeah i mean 100
i hope i am in the next few years and based on you know a few conversations that are happening at the
moment obviously being a bit stored and difficult because of covid but if any one of these things
happen then you know that's that'll happen uh very quickly i realize i'm probably shooting myself in
the foot by saying it's out loud on youtube right now so i can eat my words in 10 years and i'm
like oh phil what were you thinking but you've got you've just you've got to be positive right
you've got to be optimistic about it um because there's already so many knows and negativity and
and um and difficult things to navigate to kind of get to wherever that is you want to be
and if you don't sort of believe in what you're doing um then that's then that
makes the whole thing even worse so yeah um i mean i feel like i've already put money on it
because you know it cost a lot of money to make origins so uh you know i feel like i've
already placed my bet so whether that hopefully pays off we will we will see but yeah i hope so
i hope so if hollywood doesn't happen can you still make a living as an independent filmmaker
if the hollywood dream doesn't happen then now i can like wholeheartedly say well i tried you
know i mean like i like there isn't another short film you know there isn't like another
version of origins that you would make right you just put your store out there
you put everything into it and you go there you go and you hope that maybe things come back you just
gotta put it all out there um and you know one of the reasons for taking that risk in making the
film financially and professionally um because you know if you make the column and column b
of like reasons to make it reason not make it the reason not to make it is way bigger
on paper than it is to make it um from practice practical perspectives but it's
um but i also thought like you know what if i don't make it i don't try i'll always regret it
um and and i don't i don't i felt like i could i could probably live with
like the kind of hollywood dream to inverted commerce to not happen having
tried then always wondering well what if i did make that film you know because um
you know this it's still a very rewarding experience right from the things i've talked
about in terms of the comments and the connections to people and people over the world watching it
and that's what you make films for right of course you don't really set out to self-finance the films
and also not be allowed to actually profit from them because obviously it's not your ip like it's
lucasfilm disney's ap so you can't even you know generate any income from it so um but it's but
yeah you know i've still got ideas and still ways of making independent film and i i don't think
it's all reliant on doing the big studio deal but i feel that i feel that i'm sort of done making
really low budget like films you know um because i feel like i've sort of done that and kind of
got the t-shirt you know uh unless it was something you know script that was beautifully
interesting or again ambitious and challenging then i would then then that would be great to do
um but yeah i feel uh i i i feel like i'm going around the houses with this answer because i'm
not actually maybe articulate i've said it out loud it's the first time i'm thinking
about it properly but um genuinely i'm like um it would obviously be frustrating because i've
always wanted to make those big huge films but it is like winning the lottery and then some but
but yeah i wouldn't have any regrets now having made it you know because i'm still gonna carry
on making films right whatever films they are i don't know but at least i've sort of scratched
that itch by making origins to this sort of scale ambition the way we have done do you wish feature
films paid as well as commercials yeah i mean it'd be great if like low-budget independent film paid
as much as commercials um yeah i mean i'm very lucky to um you know
make commercials and be busy making commercials such one and um and you
know i've been doing that now for 15 years uh i directed my first paid commercial was 20.
um so uh i um so yeah i've been doing it quite a long time and surviving doing it so far
and yes it'd be great i mean you know when you get into the big tent pole side of thing with with big
risk and big budget becomes you know a bigger upside of you know bigger salaries for directors
and stuff at that level so they would probably you know or they would uh dwarf a commercial fee
um but it's a hard life i mean it's and on all the indie features i've made
i've still made commercials because i i put everything on the screen really i just paid myself
you know or was paid a small amount um because i was like well no let's get that thing let's
let's get an extra day you know whatever that thing is at that moment it's all about
making the film and commercials i've enabled that because i'm busy and that's how i make my living
um i i mean i don't know how like full-time indie producers survive like it's that's a hard life
getting a paycheck every x out of years when you make something i may i don't know how that i don't
know how they do that i don't know but people do it so um so i guess i'm lucky with the commercials
i mean dakota's safety net is making it sound very reliable but
again things can change look at covid look at lockdowns look at the industry you know
things can change like that so i'm just lucky that um that i have that currently
you